2015

October 13,

Dear Guardian Ad Litem, MO DSS, and Whom Else it May Concern,

My name is Pamela Ward. I am a lifetime resident of Springfield,

Illinois and member of Blessed Sacrament Church. My husband and I
are the proud parents of our ten year old son and two challenging but
very loved teenage girls who are fifteen and seventeen years old. I
have a degree in psychology focusing in motivation and behavior and
am certified to teach pre-K through eighth grade in Illinois.
Unfortunately, due to health reasons I am unable to work in our current
schools. For the last fourteen years I have worked in finance and I am
a self-employed contract mortgage underwriter working from home.
This allows me to volunteer at my kids schools and be available for
friends and large extended family with busy lives. My husband has a
degree in computer science, is a US Army veteran and has been
employed with the State of Illinois for the last twenty years. My life is
truly blessed.
I attended freshman year of high school at Ursuline Academy
with, Angela Angie Mayes. Angie and I have known each other since
grade school. We were both members of IFMC, which is a state music
club. We attended music camps during our junior high and early high
school years as well. After my freshman year of high school, I
transferred to the public school system due to family financial reasons,
but keep in touch with Angie and other friends. Sophomore year, I was
invited and attended homecoming sat my former school with my
friends. Angie and I celebrated Sweet Sixteen birthdays. Her parents
surprised her with her first car. My mom helped me get a part time job
to cover insurance to drive her car and we had pizza after I got off
work on my birthday.
Daryle Sean McGonigle and I attended SSHS togeter, the public
school I transferred to my sophomore year. We did not hang out
outside of school but we did have the same lunch shifts and enjoyed
similar music and food (Taco Bell down the street). I think back then
he had already begun to lose his hearing, because he always seemed
loud. He was already a big giant of a man child even then, but always
a gentle and silly giant. Seans family moved, and he completed high
school in Chatham, IL, one of many smaller communities around the
capital city. We did not keep in contact.
For several years Angie and I didnt keep in contact often either.
We didnt have the internet or cell phones. I was working long hours to
save for college. After several years of studying and minimum wage
work I started my career in finance and my family. Several more years
passed when Angie and I met up again, working at same financial
institution. Angie had recently married Sean. Imagine my surprise
when I discovered that my old friends from separate high schools
married. I wasnt aware they had met.

Angie left that financial institution for another employment offer.

By this time Sean and Angie had their son Riley Liam. As with many
busy young families we focused on raising our children and careers.
Fortunately social media allows us to keep up with the others lives in
bits and pieces. For Angie and myself, social media such as Facebook
reflects our lives centered around children, work and our gardens.
Sean and I met up at a class reunion for the high school we
attended together when I heard about the divorce. I hadnt heard from
Angie directly in over six months. A few weeks later, Sean advised
me, after he and Angie had separated, he had a ten week relationship
with a woman,Sarah. He also invormed me Sarah had the baby in
Missouri and since he knew he was the father he filed a paternity. suit
Sarah gave birth to a baby boy who was placed in foster care due
to testing positive for several illegal/non-prescribed drugs. The birth
certificate listed Sarah as the mother, and another man as the father.
Sean told me that before he was allowed to verify paternity, the named
father had to test negative with a DNA test. He also advised me that
he had now become aware that Sarah had at least two other children
that had been taken into foster care due to her addictions.
After months and months, Sean informed me the named father's
DNA test was negative, and he was getting tested to verify paternity.
Shortly after, the results came back verifying that Sean was the
biological father. The baby was now almost nine months old. Sean
was able to set up a visitation schedule for an hour each week to get to
know his son while a back-ground check was completed. He met the
foster family and discovoered Sarah was allowed regular visitaion and
was withing walking distands for said visits, subject to court ordered
drug treatment. She had seen baby since before the end of the
previous year.
Several months later Sean was allowed to bring his son home for
weekend visits and finally under his full time primary care. It was such
a wonderful relief for him to finally have his son. Through no fault of
his own, Sean had been denied access to for almost the first full year
of life.
My family and I were delighted to meet the baby, now fifteen
months old. He seemed to have no physical effects of any drug use
from his birth mother (a personal concern) and was quite healthy. His
foster family had cared very well for him. I was also relieved that my
friend was no longer driving four hours round trip for an hour visit after
working his 2nd and 3rd shift jobs. Most important though, he was able
to finally be a parent to his son.
Sean and other mutual friends, along with my family occasionally
get together for cookouts and birthday parties with our kids on
weekends. Seans son Liam, my kids and several others children enjoy
hanging ou,t swimming, playing Legos, video games, ect. Liam also
loves playing with his baby brother and telling everyone about things
the baby can do. We all fell in love with this newest (but not newborn)
little guy, his sweet smile, his silly talking noises, his own little
developing person.

In the early fall of 2014, Sean, being the honest person that he
is, advised Angie through attorneys that he had fathered another child.
Within two months, with her parents covering costs, Angie
overwhelmed Seans limited legal funds with allegations of partial
truths. By the time the divorce was finalized in March, 2015, Angie
amounted over $15,000 in legal fees to acquire 100% of all marital
possessions and about 75% of Seans personal pre-marital items,
including the 'family dog' Bear. Sean had Bear for years before Angie
and he began dating Bear died within three months of her sole care.
At the same time that Seans paternity was verified, the divorce
was being finalized. I have had several friends/couples get divorced
over the years, but I have always tried to just encourage
communication to help with raising kids. I have helped several friends
work out differences on visitation and other issues while hurt feelings
and finances resolved over time. In July of this year, Sean brought his
younger son home and my family and I welcomed meeting him. Angie
advised me then she no longer considered me her friend. She
removed/blocked me from all social media and other direct
communication.
When Sean brought his baby home he told me he had to return
in October to Missouri. At that time he was to get permanent custody
and legally change his name. Towards the end of September, Sean and
Angie had a six month follow-up court date from the initial divorce.
Sean told me later, that during the follow-up hearing the judge asked
him several questions about his baby regarding child care and
employment. The following week, on Tuesday evening, while working,
Sean received multiple voice messages and had numerous missed calls
from MO DSS. They (MO DSS) showd up in Illinois to take Seans baby
back into state custody. The following afternoon MO DSS removed the
baby from Seans care.
The just cause MO DSS stated in immediate removal of the baby
was incomplete back-ground check that did not include FBI finger
prints in the paperwork. After spending hundreds of dollars to prove
paternity, months of phone calls and waiting and then weekly driving
back-and-forth for limited access to his child, Sean had been solely
caring for his own biological child. None of this made sense. No
investigation or charges have been presented.
After two months of getting to finally being able to get to know
his son, my friends child was removed from his care. I was witness
along with his mother, when they took they baby. It was heartbreaking. The local police department sympathized with Sean and
offered condolences. They encouraged him to stay strong as they
watched him handing over his beloved son. One officer related a brief
personal story to help Sean cope with the overwhelming devastation.
Seans mom (Grandma Cookie) was also beyond consultation in her
grief.
From baby conception, birth, foster care, proving paternity,
visitation and back-ground checks the last year and a half of Sean's life
seem like a Lifetime movie. The title screams for a rainy afternoon

movie, tear producing two-hour special 'based on true story' headline.

This baby was literally taken from his father because of unsupported
allegations by his former spouse while the biological mother lied about
paternity. Sean has never been charged with or found guilty of being
abusive or neglectful towards Angie, his younger son, Sarah or the
baby. Between Sarah, who I have never met, and Angie, who I have
known for thirty years, both have being misleading. Because of their
dishonesty, Sean has been denied his given right to parent his
youngest son. I am devastated that our legal system would deny rights
to a parent and child in this manner.
I have watched Sean care and love for both of his boys. In the
two months the baby was with Sean more than basic needs of shelter,
food and clothing were met. Sean took him outside, to farmers
markets and parks. He enrolled the baby in swimming lessons at the
local YMCA and attended religious services on Sundays. He involved
him in opportunities for development socially, mentally, emotionally
and morally. Sean established his parental right and continually
demonstrated his ability to raise his sons, but most of all, shown his
children love.
I close my long personal statement based on my lengthy
observations and history with Sean, his family and children: It is in the
best interest of Julian Oliver Norton AKA Luke McGonigle to be
returned to and sole custody granted to his biological father, Daryl
Sean McGonigle.

Respectfully,

Pamela Ward